I just learned about this outrage (tip of the hat to AndrewSullivan.com).

A retired schoolteacher from Texas decided to move to Rhode Island. He and his wife started looking at their debt situation and decided to pay some of it down. And, quoting from Bob Kerr in the Providence Journal, “The balance on their JCPenney Platinum MasterCard had gotten to an unhealthy level. So they sent in a large payment, a check for $6,522.

“And an alarm went off. A red flag went up. The Soehnges’ behavior was found questionable.”

The Feds got involved, believe it or not.
The couple checked online and found that the check had arrived but the amount available for credit on their account hadn’t changed. They called and after being passed through ever-higher levels of management, they learned, as Kerr wrote, “that the amount they had sent in was much larger than their normal monthly payment. And if the increase hits a certain percentage, Homeland Security has to be notified. And the money doesn’t move until the threat alert is lifted.”

The couple eventually got their credit line back, but it apparently took a lot of phone calls and some time to convince the higher-ups that this retired couple wasn’t planning a terrorist attack.

As government officials ramp up the perception of the terrorist threat, government officials little by little move toward the idea that everybody in the country needs constant surveillance, that they are guilty (or at least suspicious) until proven innocent.

Does this sound as outrageous to other people as it does to me? Has this happened to anybody else out there? I’d like to hear from you.

P.S. The blog I linked to has a headline about the “hameless” and “necessary” Patriot Act. I’m as opposed to the Patriot Act as almost anybody, but it looks to me as if this action is not related to the Patriot Act but the laughably named Bank Privacy Act.